Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Coffee People Podcast at SCA ft. Elizabeth Heller, Paper Frog Coffee

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Coffee People Podcast at SCA ft. Elizabeth Heller, Paper Frog Coffee · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:00
  Sliding into your screen is not just any coffee bag, it's a
• 0:03
  Rostar coffee bag. No mean thousands personalized,
• 0:07
  just 25 in Rostar's design lab. No design experience needed.
• 0:12
  Choose a pattern, add your logo and text, or create something
• 0:17
  memorable. With AI being made in the
• 0:20
  Midwest, you can expect it on your doorstep in no time.
• 0:24
  Now that was smooth. Hey everyone, good morning and
• 0:30
  welcome to the Coffee People podcast.
• 0:32
  I'm your host, Ryan Walt. I recently spent a long weekend
• 0:37
  in Houston, TX at the Specialty Coffee Association Expo.
• 0:40
  I had lots of coffee there. It's an annual convention that
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  draws guests from all over the world, and our presenting
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  sponsors at Rostar invited me to join them in their convention
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  floor booth. My collaborator on Nick and Ryan
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  Drink Coffee, Nick Schmidt, curated some excellent
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  interviewees to help us launch Season 14.
• 1:02
  Yes, you heard that right, Season 14.
• 1:05
  I honestly don't believe it either.
• 1:08
  If you're watching this show on Apple, Spotify, or one of the
• 1:11
  other big podcasting sites, thank you.
• 1:14
  And know that you can see all of our SCA interviews on our
• 1:18
  YouTube channel at Roast West Coast Podcasts.
• 1:21
  That link is in the bio, and we dropped all of those shows at
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  once. If you're watching there on
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  YouTube already, thank you so much.
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  We are trying to grow that Channel.
• 1:31
  The link to our newsletter, Roast westcoast.com and to
• 1:34
  rostar.com and to the websites of our special show guests at
• 1:38
  SCA can be found in the notes. Wherever you're watching or
• 1:42
  listening to this episode, it's probably right there below.
• 1:47
  Thanks for clicking through those.
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  It actually helps us know if people are listening and paying
• 1:52
  attention. And now I hope that you, like
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  me, have a Dang good cup of coffee at the ready, because
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  it's time for another Coffee People podcast.
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  Frog and my wife and I, we do mascots, Oh my God, in the car
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  because we travel Rd. trips a lot, yes.
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  And so right now we have this stuffed western tanager bird
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  that I got at Joshua Tree National Park that makes a
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  little noise, and his name is Scarjo.
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  But it's a. Boy, good, But this frog will
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  travel with me wherever I go. But we need a name.
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  I was just going to say, what's the name?
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  He looks like a Clyde. It could not be more perfect.
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  I feel like Clyde. He's a Clyde.
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  For jerseys. We should get started.
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  Sure thing, let's do. Welcome to the Coffee People
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  podcast. Thank you SO.
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  Much. I'm Ryan.
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  Elizabeth. Hi Elizabeth, Would you tell
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  everyone what the name of your company is and where where they
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  can find you? Sure thing.
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  So I'm Elizabeth from Paper Frog Coffee.
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  We are from Connecticut. This is actually our hard launch
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  day, so. Whoa, what?
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  Yeah, that's. Exciting.
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  Yeah, I didn't know that. We had a soft launch a few weeks
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  ago, basically to practice for the SEA because we wanted to
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  come here kicking and screaming. But yeah, we were just super
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  excited to get going and we figured what better launching
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  point than having an entire community around us that cares
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  so much about what we do? So why not show everyone on the
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  first day, you know, Wow. Yeah, I like.
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  Soft launched. In my closet at home with this
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  show. Actually that's not true.
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  I was on the bed with a blanket over my head for sound.
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  The. First time, yeah, she got a
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  dampen. It was very warm.
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  I was checking out your website which is what again?
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  Paper frog dot coffee. Paper frog dot coffee I saw this
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  term I really liked flavour detective.
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  Yes, What is a flavour detective?
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  So I'm sure a lot of people listening to this podcast are
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  nerds, as we are. Cool people.
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  Nerds are cool people. It's a new generation.
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  Fair enough, but my partner and I really what we wanted to bring
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  to the table was coffees that made us like whoa.
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  Like every time we open our bag of coffee we want to be again
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  like it's the first time. We are just so in love with it
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  and what we kind of determined ourselves to be our flavor
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  detectives in that we sit there with it and we have to love
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  every moment. We dissect it to the very core,
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  like we will try it 10 different times.
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  Oh my gosh, there was one day where we had 60 coffees lined up
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  and we tried every single one of them, light, medium and dark.
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  When I tell you we were on the floor by the end of the day like
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  we were done. So it's really important for us
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  to love our product and to do that we have to love every
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  single layer, flavor, roast profile, everything about it.
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  And that kind of makes us a detective, you know?
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  Super cool. I was actually, when you, when I
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  read the term flavor detective, my first thought was like, oh,
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  like the kids on the magic school bus.
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  Oh my gosh. Right, like there's.
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  Science. Detective detectives.
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  Literally. Oh yeah.
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  And that's the other part. Like we fell in love with coffee
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  roasting and brewing because it is such a science and as someone
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  who loves stuff that's super tactile, I loved how I could
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  change one variable and completely change the outcome
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  like no one's business. Very cool.
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  You're new, obviously. Very new.
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  Like 10 minutes old, yes. An hour and 2.
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  You talk about sustainability on your website.
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  Yeah. How does being small impact your
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  ability to feel sustainable in the work that you're doing?
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  What are you doing to make that something that's important?
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  To you. It's definitely more of a
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  challenge when you are small because you don't have the big
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  resources of buying in bulk necessarily when you can't
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  project your numbers far out. However, that being said, again,
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  my co-owner and I are also vegan, so from the get go that
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  was something that we knew had to be top priority for us
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  because we care about how this market specifically and also
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  others in the food industry can impact climate, specifically
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  animal agriculture, all of that. So when we promote our coffee,
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  if we're ever doing espresso drinks, of course it's all plant
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  based options. Additionally, we roast on the
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  Bellwether roaster currently which is the most
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  environmentally friendly at the moment, just because it's fully
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  electric now. We will have to eventually and
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  hopefully get bigger roasters when we get a.
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  Bigger electric roasters are coming.
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  Exactly. So we are kind of holding out
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  and doing a lot of research on how we can minimize our carbon
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  footprint the most in every single step of the business.
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  And also, of course, all of our bags are recyclable from Rostar
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  and yeah, I. Just love these.
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  Like there's so many people going.
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  Oh, and our bag roast off. We're gonna go look at your bag
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  in a second. Oh awesome, but.
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  Yeah, you mentioned a partner. I'm assuming you did other
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  things in your life. Yes.
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  Coffee is not the easiest job in the world.
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  Why do this? You know what?
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  Like why not do it? I thought of it that way.
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  So my background, I went to school, I'm 25 S still a little
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  bit young. I got out of college a few years
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  ago after committing five years to music education, right?
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  And I taught for a year and I love the education aspect and
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  bringing people into the things that I'm passionate about and
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  curious about. And sort of throughout that,
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  realizing that the classroom wasn't the space that I wanted
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  to teach in, I also fell down the coffee rabbit hole and, and
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  the illustration rabbit hole as well.
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  So the designs and the bags and everything, I was putting my
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  heart into those as well. And I actually reached out to
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  Mike on a cold call because he also has a cafe.
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  Mike is the other owner and we partnered to make some stuff for
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  his cafe. And he came at me with a random
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  call. He was like, hey, I have a funny
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  idea. I was like, all right, he'll
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  probably want me to run his social media or something.
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  And he was like, we should start a coffee roaster.
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  And I was like, OK, let's do it. Done.
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  So to just tie it back up, you ask why I ask why not I'm.
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  Going to have to change my entire way of looking at the
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  world. Where can people find you online
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  again or in real life if there is a real life?
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  Well, if you ever see me, I'm probably looking like a spaz
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  somewhere so just come up and say hi.
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  But we are Paper Frog coffee on all platforms and our website
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  again is paper Frog dot coffee. Got it.
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  You have a quiz on your website? Yes.
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  What type of coffee style are you?
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  Some of the choices are nerdy, easygoing, rebellious.
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  Yeah. What would I be just from your
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  pure visual judgment? 100% easygoing.
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  Oh, that's nice of. You.
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  Yeah, just very calm energy. We like to say our easygoing
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  coffees are the ones where you can sit on the porch and just
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  exhale deeply, have the companion cup next to you, sip.
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  And it's just like sort of that meditative experience that.
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  Is perfect. That is exactly me, except there
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  would probably be a river and maybe a whiskey hiding behind
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  the coffee. Just mix it in the coffee.
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  Yeah. Well, whatever it is, thank you
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  so much for being here. Thank you.
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  Appreciate it. We should go look at those bags.
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  Yes, please. Let's do it all right?
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  That was perfect, that. Was amazing.
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  You were amazing. Still recording.
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  So we're at Paper Frog Coffee. Obviously, we just did an
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  interview. Look how cute it looks.
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  I just love all this stuff. Could you maybe teach us about
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  some of these bags or talk me through how you guys came up
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  with the design? I think you mentioned that you
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  did a lot of illustrations. Yes.
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  So everything is a team effort that we do, but I was the one
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  with the pencil in my hand making these guys.
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  And I got to tell you, it was the most fun part of this entire
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  process of getting the company started up.
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  And it's because these characters on the bags aren't
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  just icons to represent the name or the type of coffee, but they
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  all kind of have a story if you look closer.
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  We really tried hard to make sure they all have not only the
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  character, a location, but also an action that sort of gives you
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  the vibe of the coffee you're going to have in the bag.
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  So a great example. I said you were easygoing, and
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  our Golden Crane bag is probably our most easygoing coffee in our
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  lineup. It's our flagship medium roast.
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  And we joke about this guy being from The Karate Kid because he's
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  doing some Tai chi and slow movements.
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  And it's just one of those cups that you just sit back and
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  you're like, oh, so we wanted to make sure that with the sunset
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  and everything else that that is illustrated before you even get
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  the cup ready to go and drink. So we loved telling the stories
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  through our packaging more than anything else.
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  Very cool, thank you so much. I love the dragon.
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  Oh, it's. Kind of our favorite.
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  Before we go you can't have favorites.
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  I didn't say anything. Actually, it changes day-to-day
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  to become like. Who is Pedrero?
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  You have vote for Pedrero T-shirts.
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  Have you seen Napoleon Dynamite? Of course I've seen it.
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  I'm 44 years old. I'm 25 and watch it all the
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  time. So why this came to be?
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  And there's a Liger on the bag if you are a true fan with the
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  the spike tail. But but for Pedrero, one of our
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  limited coffees is actually from the Pedrero region in Honduras.
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  And we got this coffee ready to go.
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  I was literally like making this.
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  What are this called? The logo, the label on the back.
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  And suddenly I was like, Mike, I have an idea and I need you to
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  let me do it. And suddenly, like, he's like,
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  all right, so I like RIP out my iPad and I'm like, and I just
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  like, turn it. We were on Zoom at the time, and
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  it's the Liger. And it just said vote for
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  Pedrero because I was like, we can't not.
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  It's too close to Pedro. So we wanted to get shirts that
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  match. Yeah.
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  Like to have fun. Whoa, Sorry.
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  Excuse me, Sir. No one calls me.
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  Ever. I'm not.
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  No one ever calls. But they call when I'm in a
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  thing. Yeah.
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  You were talking about Mike, your other partner.
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  Yeah, so. That's good coffee.
• 13:18
  This is the last time that I will be recording in this little
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  booth. I have spent hundreds of hours
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  doing recordings in here. 12 of the 13 seasons that we've
• 13:33
  completed. We're done right here in this
• 13:35
  closet. And well, I say it's a closet
• 13:38
  all the time. Not everyone believes me, but
• 13:41
  there's really my clothes back there and when I want to record,
• 13:44
  I have to pull a bin out from the seat.
• 13:48
  The train that you might have just heard is really going by
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  all the time. I just put these acoustic panels
• 13:54
  up not too long ago and they've actually really helped.
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  The first season of this show I recorded on my phone and I did
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  it most of it while being tucked in under a down comforter on my
• 14:08
  bed. Even though it was fall and it
• 14:11
  was like 85° outside and 95 in our apartment.
• 14:17
  Very bare bones. I mean, this is still pretty
• 14:20
  pure bones, to be honest, but some things have stayed the
• 14:24
  same. The people that I'm talking to
• 14:26
  have been awesome. I mean, they're spending their
• 14:30
  time with me and and with you. And I've always had really good
• 14:34
  coffee when I'm doing these shows.
• 14:37
  In the beginning, Chris O'Brien from Coffee Cycle was my first
• 14:41
  and longest running coffee cycle expert.
• 14:45
  I learned a lot from him, not just on this show, but in the
• 14:48
  year I spent being a barista at his shop.
• 14:50
  When I asked him, hey buddy, can you teach me about coffee?
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  I'll pay you. And he said, sure, but why don't
• 14:56
  you just come work one day a week?
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  And I think in his head knew that that would be, you know,
• 15:02
  one day turned into 3 turned into 5 some weeks.
• 15:07
  And that hasn't changed. He's still, you know, a go to
• 15:10
  for me and I'm still actually drinking his coffee.
• 15:14
  This is a blend that he and I are actually working on together
• 15:16
  as collaborators, which is really cool.
• 15:18
  Stay tuned for that. Rostar is helping us out with
• 15:21
  some really cool custom gusseted coffee bags.
• 15:28
  I'm continuing to talk right now.
• 15:30
  You're probably seeing this about episode 5 of season 14
• 15:35
  because I'm just kind of letting this emotion bleed in.
• 15:42
  And then sometimes it takes a minute.
• 15:47
  I've been in this neighborhood for a long time.
• 15:49
  It hasn't always been easy. As much as I love California and
• 15:56
  we're moving, by the time you see this, we might may have
• 16:00
  already moved at the end of the month, the end of May.
• 16:03
  And as excited as I am about a new adventure and to explore new
• 16:11
  places and maybe swap the ocean for some big trees and rivers, a
• 16:19
  lot of the last five years of my life have been spent in this
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  little closet and connecting with people from the coffee
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  industry who were generous enough to spend their time with
• 16:29
  me. They gave me a connection at a
• 16:33
  time when nobody was really getting connections and I
• 16:37
  thought I didn't need them. But it turned out that I did and
• 16:42
  actually enabled me to stay disconnected in real life a
• 16:45
  little bit longer than maybe some of you.
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  And it made it harder for me to understand those of you that
• 16:52
  were going back out into the world during the heart of COVID
• 16:54
  too. So just a lot, a lot of that.
• 16:58
  And thank you for watching the show, the video version now, for
• 17:06
  listening to it before. Thank you to, you know, our
• 17:10
  sponsors, not just Rostar, but of course Rostar, but Hussea,
• 17:15
  who's been around since the beginning.
• 17:16
  Coffee cycle, Zumbar Coffee and tea, Steady State, Maria Coffee
• 17:21
  Camp Coffee Company, Ascend Coffee Roasters.
• 17:24
  I should have wrote this down. Civics, San Franciscan.
• 17:29
  You know, the the Indies that were reaching out.
• 17:32
  Cozy canine. I know I'm missing somebody.
• 17:38
  If I do, I'm really sorry. I will.
• 17:40
  I will find a way to thank you, I promise.
• 17:44
  When I said hey, can I have like 5/10/15 bucks to help me buy a
• 17:49
  microphone, you all said yes and we were off to the races.
• 17:56
  It's this microphone actually. It's still the same one, I've
• 17:59
  just never replaced it. And to everyone who's listening,
• 18:04
  I think in the beginning there was like 4 or five of you, and
• 18:06
  now there's quite a few more. Your niche audience that cares
• 18:12
  about coffee and entrepreneurship and people's
• 18:15
  journeys. And if I've learned anything
• 18:18
  from going to events like the Coffee Expo or Coffee Fests,
• 18:24
  it's that you care about each other in real life too.
• 18:26
  And you've cared about me. And I can't thank you enough.
• 18:31
  So cheers to all of you. The next time that we chat, I
• 18:36
  will not be in this closet. I'll be somewhere on the road,
• 18:39
  probably looking forward to rebuilding the vibe that I've
• 18:44
  I've grown to love here. Oh, that would have been a good
• 18:51
  moment for a train whistle wanted.
• 18:54
  Maybe I'll splice one in.